Cartoonist "no longer works for The Daily Texan"
The Daily Texan editors and Stephanie Eisner cave in over Trayvon Martin cartoon

March 28, 2012 By John Hambrick

Update 7:30 p.m. – The Daily Texan Editorial Board issued a public apology for the cartoon and have announced that Eisner no longer works for the paper. The editors did not clarify if Eisner was fired or quit. Read the statement here.

An angry Trayvon Martin mob descended on The Daily Texan Wednesday and confronted the paper’s editors. They protesters are angry with the editors over what some are saying is a racist editorial cartoon published on Tuesday.

One protester waved a sign that read, “The Daily Texan, racist since 1900.”

You might think that this could be a teachable moment for the budding student journalists. Instead of standing up for the First Amendment, the editors folded like a cheap suit and tried to in vain to convince protesters they are not racists.

Robert Quigley, a journalism professor at the University of Texas, tweeted that The Daily Texan’s editors are going to publish a formal apology.

Students decry the ignorance, wonder where the editorial oversight was. Editors say they are sorry and will publish a formal apology.

What Quigley failed to realize is that the Eisner’s cartoon was meant to stoke debate. It was meant to point out that it is the media that is stoking the flames of racism. But like many today, political correctness and the fear of criticism.

What the editors don’t know is that there is no rational debate or conversation you can have about the Martin shooting. It’s all driven by anger and emotions. Not even the media is providing facts. They are reporting on the emotion.

If someone is calling you a racist, you will never convince them that you are not.

The whole hub-bub started Tuesday after The Daily Texan published an editorial cartoon by Stephine Eisner. The cartoon was meant to lambast the media for engaging in “yellow journalism”. What got people upset is that they only saw one phrase in the drawing and that phrase was “colored boy”.

The editors issued a statement late Tuesday distancing themselves from the cartoon, but standing behind Eisner.

The views expressed in the cartoon are not those of the editorial board. They are those of the artist. It is the policy of the editorial board to publish the views of our columnists and cartoonists, even if we disagree with them.

But once the national media picked up the story, the pressure on the paper’s editors increased and they cracked. The editors backtracked and lost the high ground to the Martin mob.

Eisner issued an apology to the media on Wednesday and also made the mistake of trying to convince people that she is not a racist.

I apologize for what was in hindsight an ambiguous cartoon related to the Trayvon Martin shooting. I intended to contribute thoughtful commentary on the media coverage of the incident, however this goal fell flat.

I would like to make it explicitly clear that I am not a racist, and that I am personally appalled by the killing of Trayvon Martin. I regret any pain the wording or message of my cartoon may have caused.

Sorry Stephanie, responding to an untruth is only going to get you deeper in the muck.

Maybe Eisner apologized because she didn’t want the Black Panthers or Spike Lee sending a hit squad to her or her family’s home.

Spike Lee tweeted out what he thought was the address of shooter George Zimmerman’s home, presumably in the hope that someone would pay him a visit. The Black Panthers have publicly issued a paid bounty for Zimmerman’s head.

That's my opinion. Sorry I can't fall in line with everyone else and be outraged. I've watched some of the coverage and it almost seems like some of the anchors/reporters want to say the word colored or negro before saying black or african-american.

So you really don't feel that the "C" word or the "N" word, and I wasn't referring to the word Negro, I find that hard to believe. Even the most politically conservative would find the 2 words outright appauling, but I guess you grow up in a racist world where people often used those words. I suppose things don't change much in your "world." Yes...you do have every right to your opinions, but in some cases where racism is so obvious, I find it hard to believe you don't see it that way.

False. Sorry to disappoint you but Texas is considered a southern state as defined by the census bureau. In fact, the Confederate States of America was formed by state signatories of South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

UT-Austin has a high non-white student population. From 2000 to 2010, Latino enrollment jumped 48 percent to 5,899 students, making up 11.8 percent of the student body. During the same period, black enrollment increased 38 percent to 2,201, or 3.2 percent of the student body, and the Asian population jumped 25 percent to 7,790, about 15 percent of the student body. In 2010, just 48 percent of UT's entering freshman class was white, the lowest percentage in the university's history, according to the UT Office of Information Management and Analysis. The Latino student growth at UT outpaced the 37 percent statewide population growth in that community.

And the school and city is mostly californian.

False.

Out-of-state and international students comprised 9.1% of the undergraduate student body and 20.1% of the total student body, with students from all 50 states and more than 120 foreign countries—most notably, South Korea, followed by the People's Republic of China, India, Mexico and Taiwan.

And your assertion that the city is mostly Californian is just plain WRONG. See the migration map below:

Although Delaware was a slave state, it remained loyal to the Union and is on the Northern side of the Mason Dixon line (more like Eastern, but basically the same side as Pennsylvania and New Jersey). Further, most of its population I am fairly certain reside in New Castle County, which is clearly know in the Philadelphia metropolitan region (the same way Bridgeport is associated with New York) and its weird that a part of the Philly Metro is technically in the South. With Maryland it makes more sense. The major metro in Maryland extends into Virginia and West Virginia. Although culturally I don't think that NoVa belongs in the South, until they allow splitting states, Virginia is unambiguously Southern.

Maybe you should come to Austin. Everyone there including the newspaper states it's mostly from California, and that's the legal migrants.
Then, it might be surprising, but Texas claims to be Southwestern. The telephones are called Southwestern Bell.

But we can quote some classification from Washington DC, or you can just go there and find out! Try again.

Been to Austin many times. I live three hours away. And no, "everyone" there does not state Austin is mostly Californian. My source? The former mayor, who is dating my neighbor, a Texas state senator who is in Austin quite frequently!

Email editor@sstatesman.com and tell them it ain't all Californians. their opt-eds tell me otherwise

Like I mentioned before, I'm posting from Austin. It's a leftist 3rd world shithole.
Come on down, wear your dress too, they like that in Austin, Just declared a city holiday for cross-dressing, and bring plenty of beer for the bums on all the corners. All the corners.

Now if living a whole 3 hours from a place makes you an expert on it, why do you and so many argue with me over Florida, and New York City? I lived less than 2 hours from there for decades, I'm now a NYC expert!

BTW, I just told some native austinites in the room about the former mayor and there being no Californians there and they laughed at you and called the Mayor a do nothing moron. Thank you for my day!